Former NFL player turned pastor lines up for pro-life cause

April 12, 2019 CNA Daily News News Briefs 2 Print

Washington D.C., Apr 12, 2019 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Former NFL player turned megachurch pastor Derwin Gray has spoken about how his church’s support of a pregnancy resource center was inspired by his own mother’s decision to choose life. Derwin spoke about his personal experience of abortion in an interview this week on EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.

A former linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts, the married father of two studied to become a pastor after leaving the league in 1998. Gray made headlines earlier this year when he announced that his Transformation Church donated had $50,000 to the Women’s Enrichment Center, a pro-life pregnancy resource center in South Carolina.

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But Gray said that he was surprised the donation went viral because the Christian church has been working with and serving the pregnancy resource center for several years.

The decision to partner with the Women’s Enrichment Center, Gray said, is a personal one, describing how his mother was encouraged to have an abortion when she became pregnant with him at just 16 years old.

“She went to the school nurse and she said that she was pregnant, and the school nurse said to her, ‘Well, you should go to California where they perform abortions, because this could ruin your life,’” he said. “And so I’m thankful that my mom, in essence, said a cuss word to the school nurse, and said no.”

Gray said his mother only recently shared this story about her pregnancy with him, and her “courageous” decision “influenced my perspective,” showing him how important it is to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually support women and families facing unplanned pregnancies.  

“Who are the kids that could have been born who are like me, that grew up in an at-risk environment, a troubled environment, and yet God in His grace has used that now to utterly transform my life, and so we just want to be a part of seeing Christ bring Life into the world,” he said.

Christians, Gray said, “should be on the front lines of serving these men and women at pregnancy centers who are right in the midst of it.”

“We should be there providing volunteers, we should be there providing spiritual support, we should be there providing financial support, like, we live in a world where adoption costs thousands of dollars, and an abortion is relatively cheap,” he said. “And so the church has an important role.”

Gray said he’s grateful for the platform the NFL gave him in sharing Christianity, and he wants to “steward that platform well.”

“You know what, the NFL may stand for National Football League, but God’s NFL stands for New Found Life,” Gray said. “And he wants people to live because we are his image-bearers.”

Kate Scanlon is a producer of EWTN Pro-Life Weekly

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Cincinnati archbishop urges Catholics to reject state abortion amendment in November

August 14, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
A sonogram picture of a fetus in the second trimester of a woman’s pregnancy / Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 14, 2023 / 11:04 am (CNA).

Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr on Saturday urged Catholics in the state of Ohio to reject a November ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights under the state’s constitution.

The prelate said in a letter posted to the archdiocesan website that the proposed amendment, titled the “Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety,” would legalize the right to “take the lives of innocent children in the womb while harming women and families in the process.”

The amendment, if passed, would dictate that Ohio “shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against” a woman’s attempt to get an abortion.

State law currently prohibits abortion after the point at which an unborn child’s heartbeat is detected, generally around six weeks of pregnancy.  

Under the amendment, lawmakers could prohibit abortion “after fetal viability,” or when a child could survive outside its mother’s uterus, generally at around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The state would be prohibited from doing so, however, in cases where a doctor determined that an abortion was necessary to protect the mother’s “life or health.”

Schnurr in his letter said the proposal is an “extraordinary and dangerous attempt to radically reshape Ohio through a constitutional amendment that does nothing to aid women or promote life.”

“As Catholics, we are morally obliged to uphold the dignity of life of all vulnerable humans — immigrants, the poor, preborn children,” Schnurr wrote. “We cannot remain silent on a direct ballot question like the one in November.”

The archbishop urged Catholics to pray for the amendment’s defeat, to raise awareness of the measure, and to vote against the initiative in the Nov. 7 general election.

“Beyond that, we must continue our commitment to caring for women, children, and families,” Schnurr said, calling also on the intercessions of St. Mary and St. Joseph for the state of Ohio.

The campaign to include the abortion measure on the November ballot was led by the pro-abortion group Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom. The group said last month it was aiming to counteract what it called “draconian reproductive health care policies imposed by extremists.”

Ohioans earlier this month rejected a proposed rules change that, had it been passed, would have made it more difficult to adopt constitutional amendments via citizen-proposed ballot measures. The proposal was voted down by a margin of 57-43%. 

The August measure would have dictated that amendments like the abortion measure secure 60% of the vote to pass. With that proposal’s failure, the abortion amendment will only need the votes of a simple majority of Ohio voters to pass it. 

The August measure was criticized by pro-abortion activists who said the initiative was an effort by conservative and pro-life Ohioans to scuttle the abortion amendment in November. President Joe Biden called the August proposal an “attempt to weaken voters’ voices” and “erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions.”

A USA Today poll from July showed nearly 60% of Ohio voters supporting the November abortion amendment.

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2 Comments

  1. This reminds me of the Super (Dooper) Bowl a number of years ago when Tim Tebow was in a pro-life commercial in which he revealed that when his mother was carrying him she became ill and was advised to get an abortion but she refused. He concluded with a “Thanks mom” as she came into the picture.

    Completely predictably, the baby-killers went absolutely bonkers over the ad.

    Reply

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